Char Dukan in Landour, Mussoorie has been around since nearly the beginning of this former British summer retreat town. The name “Char Dukan” literally means “four shops” in Hindi. Although in the last 100 years an extra shop or two has sprung up.

There are many resorts in Mussoorie and it’s a popular destination with Indian tourists partly due to the lovely Mussoorie weather. When the rest of the country is roasting it’s nice and cool in this old British hill station. Click the Agoda ad below to find hotels in Mussoorie for as low as 12 US dollars.

Char Dukan, then and now.

Naturally, Mussoorie tourism is booming in the summer months and Char Dukan is practically crawling with visitors on any Saturday of the year. Serving up typical Indian snack foods like parantha (<-click for recipe), maggi noodles, and paneer pakora, these old shops keep the masses fed before they venture out for a hike in the Himalayan foothills.

Tip Top Tea Shop

There are many places to eat in Mussoorie but our favorite shop at Char Dukan, by far, is Tip Top Tea Shop. When facing the shops, Tip Top is on the far right. It serves up much the same menu as the rest of the shops, including the staple bun omelet (an omelet served in a sweet bun).

But what kept us coming back week after week, were the pancakes. These are not your mama’s pancakes. No stacks of thin, flavorless flap jacks, here. When you order pancakes at Tip Top what you get is one, literal, pan-cake.

Thick, sweet, and delicious, you really don’t even need the syrup. They come in a variety of custom flavors including banana, apple cinnamon, and chocolate.

Hot and crispy apple cinnamon pancake.

You can guess which flavor our boys preferred.

This is India so be patient, your food will not come quickly or at the same time. Our boys loved to watch the cook work his magic.

Ginger Lemon Tea

Before leaving make sure you don’t miss out on another Mussoorie specialty – Hot Honey Lemon Ginger Tea. It’s a nice alternative to the classic Indian milk chai.

I preferred the bun omelet (I’m a salty, not a sweet kinda gal) but the rest of my family never left Tip Top without a scrumptious, fried pancake.

We ran into a fantastic bit of luck being able to nestle into the foothills of the Himalayas for the first leg of our South Asian adventure.

The view from our yard. No really.

First of all, we drove 30 kilometers and the temperature dropped 30 degrees. In August. Yes please.

Second of all, hellooooo. That view.

Being from a place that’s sea level, flat, with zero visibility, these hills are amazeballs. (Do people still say amazeballs? Sigh. I’m streets behind.) Also, “hills”, my shrinking backside. Not owning wheels, plus either going up or down no matter where you need to be, it’s almost impossible not to lose weight. Between hiking to run errands and all of my processed, American vices being taken from me in one fell swoop, I’ve lost 25 lbs in just under three months.

This fantastic photo was taken by a friend.

I still see (white) people out running occasionally. And I’ve even heard there’s a cross-fit gym not far from us. No thank you, crazy white people. I get enough exercise walking to and from language school every day.